Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 03:53:28 -0800
From: fritz@nehalemtel.net
Subject: I Love Corey, Chapter, Chapter Thirty-seven
Oh goody. Once again I get to inflict the vilest of tortures on my
poor readers. That's right, the horrid and feared, warning and disclaimer
follows. Are you ready for it? Have you got your Pepto-Bismol handy?
Take a big dose before you continue.
Okay, all you youngsters get your backsides out of here. Yes I
know, life isn't fair. What do you mean, why do you have to leave?
Because I said so! Heard that before, haven't you. Yes I know, that's the
standard answer given by so-called adults when they don't have a good
answer. Well in this case I do have the answer. There's a bunch of people
out there that are trying to protect you from me. If you really knew me,
you'd know they're doing the right thing. After all, they want to keep you
ignorant so they can control your lives. I think you should be allowed to
learn anything you can so that you'll be a responsible adult. Knowledge
allows you to make wise decisions. I will admit that there is probably
room for a debate on whether or not you can learn anything from the
following story.
If descriptions of sex between males offends you, leave! If you're
not sure about that, stick around and find out. You might learn something.
I can't say that knowledge of that type will help you but at least you get
to decide. That's more than some people would allow if they had their way.
If you are one of those poor deprived persons who happen to live in
an area of the country that has laws against reading stories like this,
please leave before you get in trouble with the authorities. Either that
or hide your tracks so well they never find out you read this. After all,
we don't want to give them something to crow about. You know how they are.
They'd make big headlines about stopping crime. Then they'd point to that
as a reason to ask the voters for more money to stop more crimes of that
type. Your taxes would go up. Then you might not be able to afford
internet access. That would allow them to point to the success they had in
stopping crime. See, I know how the system works.
I must remind you that this story is a work of fiction. Fiction
means it is not true. That means I made it up. Therefore, the characters
and their actions do not exist and never happened. If you think you
recognize someone, either living or dead, you are wrong. I know, you never
make mistakes. Well this time you did. Trust me on that. After all, I
spent twenty or thirty seconds dreaming this story up. Well, maybe it took
a little longer than that.
Please honor my request and don't post this story anywhere else
without my permission. After all, it is my intellectual property, such as
it is. I'd ask you to use your property. Please extend me the same
courtesy. Also, if you wish to quote from it, please attribute such quotes
to me. Other than that, feel free to read it and hopefully enjoy it.
I continue to drive poor Ernie nuts. I'm sure he must think I'm
the world's biggest idiot in that I don't seem to learn from my mistakes.
All I can say is that I'm getting to be too old a dog to learn new tricks.
Finally, feel free to write and complain, offer suggestions, ask
questions, or just generally comment on the story. I try to answer all
such emails. I normally manage to answer within a few days but must
confess I found one the other day that had escaped my notice. With much
chagrin I answered it. I was almost a month late. If you happen to have
that happen to you, my apologies. It happened to come on one of those days
I was swamped and just didn't get around to doing anything about it. Send
such emails to fritz@nehalemtel.net In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the
following chapter. Fritz
********************************************************************************
I Love Corey, Chapter Thirty-seven
When I woke up I felt great. While I didn't want to do anything,
there was a feeling of accomplishment in me. I'd have liked to take a day
or two and just savor my feelings. However, duty called. It was time to
start a new week. With a sigh I got out of bed.
I must have disturbed Corey because he joined me at the toilet.
Then we got started on the usual morning routine. I didn't seem to have
any energy. There had always been a letdown after football season but this
time it was worse. None-the-less we managed to all get ready and eat
breakfast. I seemed to be in slow motion but was only a few minutes late
in getting to school.
The morning meeting was different. Sure, the usual announcements
were read but almost all of the time was spent on planning the assembly in
which the team players that won such things as most valuable player and
most improved player would be presented. On course there was also the
Championship Trophy to present to the school. My mind wasn't really in it
as they all discussed how they wanted to do it. The high school held
dinners to do things like that but we would hold an assembly. I made it
through the meeting in a happy daze.
When classes started that daze was broken. It was back to the same
old grind. I was thankful I'd managed to get my lesson plans ready before
the game. It took a few minutes of every class to let the students sound
off about the team and my coaching of it. By noon I was back in the swing
of things. The game was forgotten and once again it was time to try to
teach.
It seemed strange not to have practice. We did have to finish the
laundry. The boys got most of their homework done waiting for the washers
and dryers to go through their cycles. By the time all the gear was washed
and put away it was just about the normal time I'd been leaving. Except
for a few things that always seemed to crop up, I would now have my
afternoons and evenings free until track season. Hopefully that would give
me more time to work with and maybe help the boys. While the talk on the
ride home after the game had been a good start, there were still a lot of
things we needed to talk about.
Bob had called and left a message that something had come up and he
wouldn't be able to give Corey an art lesson tonight so that left things at
loose ends. There was nothing planned. A little discussion and we decided
to go out to dinner. I was still in a somewhat lackadaisical mood and
readily agreed. The boys decided they wanted to go to the Italian Surprise
for pizza. With that we changed clothes and headed over there.
The special was Cioppino. It only took me about a half a second to
decide what to order. When I was asked what that was, I reminded Corey I'd
fixed it the time we'd gone over to Bob's to meet him for the first time.
He also decided to have that. It took longer to explain to JJ and LT what
it was but in the end they decided to try it. They looked somewhat
surprised when the waiter brought bibs for everyone. The nutcracker like
tools surprised them even more. We enjoyed the breadsticks fixed in olive
oil, garlic and a bunch of spices with our salads. Then it was time for
the main course.
JJ and LT had a blast digging through the sauce finding the shrimp
and scallops. The half of Dungeness crab disappeared as fast as they could
crack it. None of us managed to eat it all but it wasn't for lack of
trying. When the boys finally gave up, you could see a look of sadness on
their faces. They would have really liked to eat the rest of it but just
couldn't do it. Needless to say the offer of dessert was met with groans.
I made them wipe the blobs of sauce off of their faces before we left.
On the way home JJ commented that he'd never had such good food
until he'd started living with me. While he missed a few of the things his
mother fixed, he was happy with what he was now getting to eat. We spent
most of the rest of the evening talking about food and what they liked
while we watched the rest of Monday night football. JJ and LT were leaning
against each other on the sofa and Corey and I were in the love seat. It
wasn't one of those funny old-fashioned love seats which were s shaped so
that you couldn't be close to each other. It was a conventional one and we
could lean against each other and enjoy the contact.
When the game was over we continued talking. Only now the
conversation turned to cooking. The boys decided they would like to learn
how to cook. Well, I did have to twist their arms a little but not much.
We decided that since we would now be home earlier, there would be plenty
of time to finish homework and still have cooking lessons. I did find out
that while both JJ and LT enjoyed watching Corey's art lessons, they didn't
want lessons for themselves.
Just before it was time for bed LT brought up the organ. It was
just sitting in the corner of the family room with a cover over it. I'd
bought it and never gotten around to taking lessons. It had seemed like a
good idea at the time but you know how it is. There just never seemed like
a good time to take lessons and learn to play it. It really was more of a
fancy keyboard. There were all kinds of sounds and rhythms and effects on
it and you could make it sound like a pipe organ or a rock combo. I just
didn't know how to do it. I'd fiddled around a little with it and had
never gotten very good. I could slightly read music because of a couple of
years of chorus when I was in high school but that was about all. Nothing
would do but I had to exhibit my lack of skill. I took the cover off and
powered it and both the speakers up.
Since I could somewhat read the treble clef, I'd gotten some chord
charts and some music with the chords above the melody line. About all I
could do was pick a preset rhythm and play the melody with my right hand
and the chords with my left. It was crude but it sounded something like
music. I hadn't even touched it since sometime last summer. Since Corey
came into my life I had other things on my mind.
Dad had loved music although he didn't play any instrument. He
especially liked show tunes. That meant I was exposed to a lot of music
out of the first half of the twentieth century. I'd grown to both
appreciate that type of music and learn to love it. I looked through the
music and picked out an old Glen Miller song. I had some registrations
programmed on the organ and punched the button for the proper one and
started in. The one I'd selected was Moonlight Serenade. Since I hadn't
tried it for a while there were some places that I didn't do very well. No
matter, I didn't claim to be a musician anyway. I had three separate
registrations for the song and there was a foot switch that you worked to
change registrations during the song. On the middle one I'd programmed it
to sound like a trumpet solo with the accompaniment played with the left
hand. Using the fingered chord and automatic bass filled in the rest. It
really did sound almost like a big band when I did a good job of playing
but tonight wasn't one of those times. When I finished, the conversation
started up again.
"Wow, I didn't know you could do that." LT was clearly impressed.
I was digging through a bunch of floppy discs that had songs on them. I
took one I liked and put it in the disc drive. Pulling the remote control
out of the disc drive I pushed some buttons and the song started.
"This song was recorded by a gentleman named Max Takano. The music
is Pastoral by Beethoven," I told him. The second song on the disc was
Suite No. 3 in D Major by Bach. There were two more but I stopped it
before they played.
"Well, what do you think?" I asked LT.
"Oh man, I didn't know you could do all that with an organ."
"I can't. If you're good enough at playing, like Max is, you can.
He used to demonstrate Yamaha organs. In fact he still may. I don't know
about that. I just know he used to demonstrate for Yamaha when this one
was built."
"Could I try it?"
"Sure." I turned the master volume down. The two KA 30s would
about blow you out of the room if you didn't pay attention to what you were
doing. They were rated at 250 watts per speaker. With the volume turned
down, at least he wouldn't break our eardrums. I explained about the
expression pedal and a little bit about how the two keyboards worked. Then
I turned him loose.
He was very tentative at first. He'd press a key and think about
it. Finally he stepped down a little more on the expression pedal. Of
course the volume level rose. I showed him how to form some simple chords
and explained some of the notes that normally went with them. He continued
to fiddle around until I sent them to bed. He looked like he'd have been
happy to spend all night playing around with the organ. As I was shutting
the HX-1 and the speakers off he asked me if he could learn to play it.
"Tell you what; I'll see if I can find someone to give you a few
lessons. If you like it, you can take lessons and learn to play. How's
that?" He was grinning like the cat that ate the canary as he headed for
bed. JJ hadn't seemed very impressed. I wondered what I could come up
with that he'd like to do. I sure hoped I could think of something. This
was about as happy as I'd seen LT since Judy had brought him here. I just
wished that JJ would find something that made him as happy. Even if LT
didn't like the lessons, it appeared that he was now beginning to fit in
and was getting over worrying about asking for things. JJ still seemed to
feel like an outsider. I needed to find some way to get him past that.
It always took me a week or so to get used to going directly home
after class. Well, I did have a few things that needed doing but they only
took a few minutes. If I'd have been a little better organized I wouldn't
have needed that. It was a matter of getting used to it. I had the sixth
period free every day except Wednesday so there was no reason not to be
ready to leave when the last bell rang. The boys were waiting for me when
I got to the Gator. I had a surprise for JJ and LT tonight.
Corey started to grin when I pulled up in front of The Computer
Store. He didn't say anything but just tagged along when we all went in.
I sent JJ and LT off to look for games and Corey went with them. I could
hear them discussing the various games while I talked to Dale. He got my
order out and explained to me how the wireless part worked. This was going
to make it handy. He had all the programs loaded and ready to go on the
two laptops. It took the boys about a half hour to pick out some games.
When Dale went through the now familiar routine of asking them if they
wanted him to load them, they looked blank. Corey just kept grinning.
Dale finally just took the games and started loading them in the laptops.
Soon he had them running and pushed them across the counter to JJ and LT.
He let them fiddle around for a few minutes before he took the laptops and
packed them back in their boxes. We had a big pile of boxes to take out to
the Gator. There were the laptops and the game controllers and the
necessary things to get our wireless network running. There were also the
fancy cases like the one I'd picked out the last time for Corey. The cases
were well padded to protect the laptops from most bumps and bangs. They
also had room for all the extras like spare batteries and things. When all
was aboard, we headed home. I dropped the boys and the computers off at
home and hurried over to Downie's to buy some groceries. By the time I got
back they had everything unpacked and they were hooking things up in their
rooms. I wanted to get dinner over with so we could get the wireless setup
installed. I was really looking forward to trying it out. When I thought
about it, I couldn't understand that I hadn't done this before. I guess
the reason was that the school was wired and I'd had the house wired the
same way when I bought it. After that inertia must have set in. You know
how it is, you're used to the way things are and just never get around to
changing them. Considering how much I liked gadgets it just seemed strange
that I hadn't done this before.
I got the scalloped potatoes in the oven and had a few minutes to
look over the directions to the wireless network. It looked pretty easy to
hook up so I started in. By the time I needed to finish cooking dinner, I
was done. I hadn't realized it would be that easy. The directions were
easy to follow and there wasn't much to it. I yelled at the boys to come
set the table and started on the chicken fried steaks. There were peas
fixed with baby onions, along with a salad to complete the meal.
I'd timed things just right. The cream I'd poured over the peas
and onions had cooked down just right when the steaks were done. The crust
on the scalloped potatoes was nice and brown and dinner looked good. Well
it looked good until my hungry swarm attacked it. Then it looked a little
sad. By the time they quit, there wasn't much left. I wasn't going to
have to worry about leftovers. There weren't even enough potatoes left for
a decent sized serving. I ate the last couple of bites of the peas and put
the bowl in the dishwasher.
After dinner we started in on the laptops. I helped JJ and LT set
up two separate logins so that anything that might be something they wanted
to keep private, they could. I also programmed some sites into favorites
for them. I warned them about letting any of their friends see the sites
in the second login because of the trouble they might get into and they
assured me they understood. When everything looked about right I let them
play around with their laptops. They ended up in LT's room and, from all
the giggling I could hear coming from there, I guess they found some of the
porn sites interesting. I was grading papers when LT asked me if I could
help them a few minutes.
They'd discovered Nifty. I'd programmed it into the favorites for
them and they'd finally gotten around to checking it out. The only thing
was, they now wanted to know what stories to read. Boy that stumped me.
I'd never even given it a thought when I put Nifty in the favorites file
that I might need to recommend some stories. Corey had just looked around
and soon figured out what he liked. Here I had a couple of boys asking me
which stories they would like. I thought about it for a few seconds and
suggested that they start in the high school or young friends sections and
see if they could find any stories they liked. If they found one, they
could go to authors and see if there were other stories by the same author.
I did suggest that if they were looking for more of a story than just sex
that they might start with Josh Aterovis and his Killian Kendall stories.
Others might be Charlie and either Justin or Eric Case. Mostly they should
just look around and see what they liked. That seemed to satisfy them for
now and I got back to my work. When I finished, I suddenly remembered that
I was supposed to find a music teacher for LT.
I started in the phone book. It wasn't long before I found the
organ wasn't a very popular instrument anymore. I could find lots of piano
teachers but they didn't seem to want to work with anyone on an organ. Not
only that, they didn't know anyone who did. I was about out of ideas when
it suddenly dawned on me that I should ask someone who played the organ.
Since the only one I knew was the organist at St. Luke's, I called him.
Jim Besslor was about seventy and had been playing at St. Luke's
long before I started attending. I thought he was a good organist but had
only heard him at church. At least he might know of someone who gave
lessons.
No, he didn't know of anyone who gave lessons. After we talked for
a few minutes he asked what kind of an instrument was I looking for an
instructor of. When I explained it was a Yamaha Electone he seemed to
become more interested. He wanted to know what model and I told him it was
an HX-1. The next thing I knew he had talked me into letting him come over
on Friday evening to meet LT and discuss what he wanted to learn. I gave
him my address and invited him to dinner. In nothing flat we had it was
all planed out. He'd be here for dinner about six-thirty and we'd take it
from there.
When I hung up, I was somewhat stunned. I was acquainted with
Mr. Besslor but hardly thought of him as a friend. He'd always come across
as very aloof. The latter part of our conversation was not what I would
have expected from him. There had been more emotion is his voice than I'd
ever heard before. About all I knew about him was that his wife had passed
away about ten years ago. His accent placed him from the Northeast part of
the country, probably Massachusetts. He always carried himself erectly
and, combined with his patrician looks, that made him appear very
distinguished. Very curious. I'd just have to wait until Friday night to
find out more.
Wednesday's trip to the pistol range produced about what one would
expect. JJ continued to do well with the Luger and Corey was close behind
him. No matter how hard he seemed to try, LT was a distant third. I
finally took the time to really study him while he was shooting. The thing
that struck me was that sometimes the shots were good and others they were
way off the mark. All of a sudden I noticed that he seemed to flinch from
the noise of any other pistol. Deciding to test my theory, I asked
everyone to stop for a couple of minutes and let LT shot all by himself.
Bingo. All six shots were in the black. Everyone went back to shooting
and I thought about the problem. He was already wearing ear protectors and
I thought that should have been sufficient. Clearly it wasn't. When the
next change of targets occurred I got him aside and asked him about his
hearing protectors. He admitted that he didn't think they did a very good
job. I suggested that we trade and see if that made any difference. When
the next round started, I could see, or rather hear that there was
something wrong with the set he'd been using. There was almost no
reduction in the noise level when using them. I went over and purchased
some of the foam type and finished the evening using them. LT was doing
much better but was still behind JJ and Corey. Finally it was time to go
home.
As the boys were cleaning their pistols, I really looked LT's muffs
over. It was then that I noticed a flaw in them. At least that solved one
problem. We'd just have to take them back and exchange them for a set that
worked. At least LT was more cheerful about his shooting and JJ actually
seemed fairly happy. They all had room for a lot of improvement but for
beginners they were doing fairly well. I didn't really care if they turned
out to be good shots or not. The important thing was that they enjoy it.
Thursday we stopped at the sporting goods store on the way home. I
needed to pick up the order I'd put in for bullets and primers and now we
could also exchange the faulty earmuffs.
I pointed out the place on the muffs where the head-bow had been
misaligned when it had been cemented on, leaving a small gap on each side.
Nick Harris, the owner looked at the defect and went and got another set.
We looked at them and they had the same defect. We checked the rest of his
shipment and every set of earmuffs had the same defect. Nick called LT
over and they started looking at the other styles he had and LT soon
selected another set.
Once that was done the boys fanned out and started looking over
everything in the store. Nick's was altogether different than most
sporting goods stores one would find in a more metropolitan area. All it
handled were things that could be used for hunting and fishing. That did
include tents and sleeping bags and assorted camping supplies but most of
the stock consisted of things like firearms and fishing gear. There were
probably a couple hundred long guns and at least fifty pistols on display.
I have no idea how many fishing poles and reels there were. He also had a
good selection of bows and arrows. There was a fair selection of reloading
supplies although it was geared more towards rifles than shotguns. The
reason I'd had to order some things was that he normally didn't stock many
spare cases of primers for shotgun shells. In fact, shooting in
competition required supplies in larger quantities than he normally sold.
I caught up with JJ in the fishing pole section. He had a sad look
on his face as he looked over the selection of trout poles. A few
questions and I learned that about the only times he'd ever done anything
with his father was to go fishing a couple of times. Most of the time
Mr. James had just ignored him or criticized him. In one sense it was odd
to be getting some information in a sporting goods store that I'd tried to
get at home and failed. JJ was finally opening up and I was starting to
see how he felt about his life and what had happened to him. I'd had him
for a student and never realized the problems he was having at home. His
mother had helped him overcome the way his father treated him and when
she'd turned on him over being gay, that was what his depression was about.
Now that I had some idea of what was wrong, maybe I could start to help him
solve it. That got me to wondering if LT had the same feelings and was
just doing a better job of covering it up. It gave me a place to start but
for now I told JJ that, if he'd like, we could go fishing in the spring. I
seemed to remember that trout fishing season opened sometime in April. As
we looked over some of the rods, I thought that one of them might be a
solution to his Christmas present. Of course he'd need a reel, some lures,
and a bunch of stuff. I'd have to get some help on that because I'd never
been much on fishing. Dad had tried to get me interested but it just never
appealed to me. I blamed it on a lack of patience.
I put my arm across his shoulder and we went to check on LT and
Corey. They were in the bow section talking about how they thought they
could be like Robin Hood. I'd tried shooting a bow and arrow once and soon
discovered it was much more difficult than it appeared. All a half day of
fiddling around had produced was a sore shoulder and a target that was
almost devoid of hits in the scoring area. I'd finally been forced to
admit that if the target was more than about ten feet from me, it was
pretty safe. We gathered up our purchases and headed home.
It was a lovely afternoon and still too early to fix dinner so I
suggested that we all go for a run. During football season I got enough of
a workout by running wind sprints and jogging with the team. It was about
the same during track season but the rest of the year I jogged. Corey's
knee was now well enough to allow him to join me and LT thought it sounded
like a good idea. About the time we were ready, JJ decided he'd join us.
The pace was quite a bit slower than my normal speed but the boys
hadn't been working out so I didn't try to crowd them. I had a route that
covered about a mile and I normally made five circuits. JJ and LT gave up
after two and Corey lasted for part of the third and then gave up and
walked back. When they'd all dropped out, I picked the pace up and
finished my last two laps.
A quick shower and it was time to fix dinner. Tonight was the
night I decided to start cooking lessons. Dinner was going to be simple,
just some hamburger patties, potatoes and gravy, a broccoli slaw for a
salad, and corn. I set them to removing the flowerets of the broccoli from
the stalks and got a couple of packages of corn out of the freezer. It
went through my mind that I probably didn't have enough corn to last until
next year. I'd frozen plenty for me but three boys ate a lot more than I
did. I stuck the packages of frozen corn in the microwave and started them
thawing. By now the broccoli was off the stalks and they cut it up into
bite sized pieces. A simple dressing of mayonnaise, vinegar, a little
sugar and a dash of salt and the salad was done. It could marinate for a
few minutes until dinner was ready.
I picked out a somewhat small onion and had LT peel and dice it.
JJ was less than thrilled when I dumped the hamburger, the diced onion, a
couple of raw eggs and some salt and pepper in a bowl and told him to mix
it up. He went over and got a spoon and I explained that he should use his
hands. He definitely had an ewe, that's yucky look on his face as he
started mixing the meat and stuff together. By now Corey had the potatoes
peeled and cooking. We had a few minutes to visit. When the potatoes were
about to boil, I started the frying pan heating. It was LT's turn to get
his hands in the meat mixture. He wasn't any more thrilled than JJ but
soon had enough patties formed to start.
The potatoes were done about the time the patties were. I throw
some salt and pepper along with a tablespoon of horseradish in the pot and
set Corey to mashing them. I poured part of the fat from the frying pan
and added some flour. When it was browned I started adding milk. Some
salt and pepper and the gravy was done. The first cooking lesson ended
with the boys eating almost all of the evidence. I was going to have to
start buying bigger packages of hamburger because there was none left and I
always like to fix a lunch with sandwiches made from the patties. So far
the boys seemed to like eating in the cafeteria better than fixing their
own lunch. I wasn't sure if it was because they liked the food or if they
were just too lazy to fix their own lunch.
Friday and the assembly were finally here. Jerry held it on the
last period so we wouldn't have to try to calm them down afterwards. It
was easier to just send them home to their parents.
The assembly started out with me listing and giving awards for all
the accomplishments the various team members had achieved. Brad got awards
for gaining the most yards passing of any student in the state for the year
and having the lowest interception ratio. Jimmy got one for rushing for
over one thousand yards. There were also ones for Cody Lewis for tackles
by a safety, Dillon Mapes for tackles by a linebacker, and several others.
Then it was time for the team to present its awards.
As Brad came forward to make the presentations I leaned back and
wondered who they had selected for their awards. They'd held a couple of
meetings to make their selections and none of the faculty except Jerry had
any idea of their selections. He was the one that counted the votes and
got the proper names engraved on the trophies. They would get to select
the most valuable player, the most improved player, and the most
inspirational player. I figured it would be interesting to see if they
thought the same way I did.
Brad was not the most confident speaker I've ever seen. He hemmed
and hawed and finally gave up and read his notes. He started with the most
improved player and explained that there had been a tie. The team couldn't
seem to make up its mind so they were going to award most improved player
to Larry Duke and Mike Williams for their improvement in place kicking.
Larry was the holder and of course Mike the kicker. He explained that
their improvement was the determining factor in managing to win the
championship. Since they had to work perfectly together, they couldn't
decided which of them had improved the most and finally gave it to both of
them.
Then he got to the most valuable player. He blushed bright red as
he announced the team had selected him. He was almost tongue tied as he
tried to explain that he really didn't deserve it and that it was only
through the efforts of the rest of the team that he'd been able to do a
good job. I found out later he'd only learned who had won at lunch time.
That didn't give him much time to prepare any remarks.
So far I wasn't really surprised. Brad was a real leader and had
shown it many times on the field. Larry and Mike had worked long and hard
and deserved their award. He now went on to most inspirational player. I
kind of thought that Jimmy might get it for his good humor and making it
through the problems with his father. I'd just have to wait and see if I
was right.
Brad started out by saying that the team had discussed several
candidates and when the voting was done, the winner was unanimous. He went
on that the person picked had shown them all how to persevere through all
kinds of troubles and help his teammates. The team had chosen Corey
Babcock.
Corey's mouth dropped open and so did mine. Strictly speaking,
Corey wasn't really on the team, yet he was a part of it. He couldn't earn
a letter or anything. The fact that they had selected him really surprised
me. Brad stumbled on about how Corey had never missed a game even when
he'd had his knee operated on and that he was always taking notes and
helping them with their play assignments. The team had decided if he could
overcome all his problems enough to worry about them, that made him the
most inspirational. He then called Corey up onto the stage with the rest
of the team.
Now it was Jerry's turn to hand out the trophies. He laughed and
told how having a tie for the most improved had presented problems in that
they had to get another trophy and have it engraved. It had just been
finished this morning.
Then Jerry presented the State Championship trophy to Brad and me.
I quickly gave it to Brad and told everyone that the team deserved it and I
was really happy to be part of the team.
The local newspaper had a reporter and photographer there and we
all had to pose for pictures and give interviews. It took all of sixth
period to finish them.
A quick stop at Downie's and we were home. I quickly prepared the
pork roast I picked up and popped it in the oven. It was now time for my
jog. The boys tagged along with about the same results as yesterday and
they had all taken their showers by the time I got back. I set them to
work dicing the ingredients for the stuffing I was going to serve with it.
By the time I'd finished a quick shower they had all the bread toasted and
cut up and the celery and onions diced. Corey almost had the sausage
browned. As soon as that was done he started sautéing the onions and
celery in some butter. The usual salt and pepper and some sage, along with
a little baking powder to lighten it, were soon mixed together. Then JJ
got to sauté the mushrooms. LT diced some canned water chestnuts and then
we peeled and diced several apples. The whole thing was mixed together
with some chicken stock and put in a baking dish. I glanced at my watch
and saw it was just about time to start cooking it.
The boys whined about washing the salad greens but soon finished
the job. I set the steamer on top of the stove and soon had Corey and JJ
fixing some Hollandaise sauce for the asparagus I was going to steam.
Dinner was coming along nicely.
Jim Besslor showed up and, after meeting everyone, he and LT spent
the rest of the time, until dinner was ready, at the organ. I could have
spent the rest of the evening listening to him play. He played a variety
of different songs and, if you didn't know it was the organ, you would have
sworn it was a bunch of different combos and orchestras. I finished up the
gravy and called him and LT to dinner.
Over dinner I learned that he'd sold organs from his dealership
which had been just outside of Boston. He now had an ELX-1 for his own
instrument but was thinking about buying a STAGEA. He was way past me
since I didn't know anything about organs but he was willing to explain.
By the time we'd finished dessert (which was in a European style,
consisting of fresh fruits and cheeses) he was ready to start teaching LT,
if he wanted to continue. LT said he did so they went back to the organ
and I quickly helped Corey and JJ clean up the kitchen. Then we joined
them.
Beginning lessons are damned boring. We started with fingering
exercises and learning what key was what note. There was no actual music
involved. By the time the lesson was over we'd agreed that the best
evening for lessons was Thursdays. Jim would come over for dinner and give
both LT and me a lesson.
After the lesson he didn't seem in any hurry to go home. We all
sat and talked for almost an hour. I got the impression he was lonely.
He'd moved out here because his wife was from California and, when he sold
out and retired, she'd wanted to come back. He liked the country but she'd
died shortly after they'd gotten here and he hadn't made many friends.
When we finally got into bed after our showers, I asked Corey if he
was ready to inspire me. He blushed and giggled. I made several more
wisecracks about not knowing how inspirational he was but that I was
willing to learn. It didn't take long until he was ready to teach me.
About then the phone rang. I was about to ignore it but finally relented.
It was Judy. She was sorry to call me so late but wondered if I
could possibly go with her tomorrow and take a special class for foster
parents. It seemed the state was trying to straighten out the paper work
and get everything legal. She'd just been advised of the class and wanted
me to take it. It would be for those persons who had been granted
emergency certification and would make her superiors happy. I wondered
what to do with my three turkeys but she said to drop them off and Art
would watch them for the day. With that I agreed. I regretted that when
she told me to be at her house at six. I was pretty sure there'd be some
grumbling when I rousted everyone out early enough to do that.
Then it was back to my inspirational teacher. He was in really
good form tonight. I don't know if he taught me anything or even inspired
me, but we really had fun. A game of dick tag all over the bed got things
going. There was too much giggling for either of us to be very formidable
opponents. We ended up hugging each other and continuing to giggle.
Somewhere along the way we'd lost track of who was it. Once the hugging
started, we no longer cared.
As my hands rubbed his back and fondled his butt, he melted against
me. His giggles slowly ceased and I started to feel some kisses on my
neck. I just relaxed and let him continue. What could be better? I had a
warm, squirming Corey kissing me. I could smell his scent and feel his
soft kisses. There was nothing more I could ask for.
It wasn't long before we were in a real lip lock. Somehow we
managed to take turns sucking on each other's tongues. Instead of dueling
with our tongues, we were sharing. It required no planning, it just
happened. We seemed to instinctively know when it was the other's turn to
lead. His tongue would explore my mouth and then I would explore and taste
his. We spent some time just enjoying each other that way. Periodically
we would break that lip lock and just look at each other and sigh.
While that was going on my hands were busy. They seemed to enjoy
exploring his body. It slowly penetrated that his ribs were no longer
prominent like they were when I first met him. Now they were covered with
enough flesh to feel sleek, or perhaps svelte. He'd grown some and had put
on enough weight to match his size. Like most growing youngsters he was
still somewhat gangly but was starting to fill out and firm up. I just
loved the feel of his body. It was so warm and alive. I just let my
fingers slide down his back, exploring each of his vertebrae. My mind was
in such a fog I couldn't count them but the feel of them was the important
thing. I didn't care how many he had, just that they felt so good under my
fingertips.
My hands drifted down to his cute little bubble butt. When I'd
first met him, it was smaller. Now my hands didn't cover it as well, but
with its growth it seemed more perfectly shaped to my hands. His twin
globes fit my hands perfectly. As I kneaded them I could feel the muscles
flex as he humped against me. He was really enjoying this and so was I. A
warmth seemed to permeate my body and that warmth was because of my love
for Corey. I couldn't seem to get enough of his scent, his feel, and his
sparkling personality. It was hard to remember when he had been such a shy
and quiet youngster. The months of living with me had opened him up and
let his personality out. He no longer tried to hide when he thought
someone would notice him. He was still pretty quiet when I wasn't there to
back him up but still he was emerging from his fears and loneliness. He had
a long way to go but any journey starts with a single step and he'd made
many of those steps. He was well on his way to growing into the adult he
could become. I was thrilled with the person I saw emerging.
I guess he'd had enough because he stopped his kissing and turned
his body around. My prize was dangling there, stiff and throbbing. There
was a drop of nectar on its tip, waiting for me. As I felt his hot mouth
engulf me I reached up with my tongue and claimed that drop. It was so
good I had to have more. I took the supplier of that drop into my mouth
and started sucking on it, trying to draw more of it from him.
I got my hands free from his legs and reached up and started
kneading those globes above me. My thumbs spread them slightly and then
dipped into his crack. I let my thumbs explore. When they reached his
ridged pucker, the pace of everything picked up. He was suddenly sucking
and tonguing more vigorously. I could feel his crack trying to pinch down
on my thumbs as he seemed to strain to give me more of himself.
I could feel his sparse pubes against my chin and his beautiful
cock seemed to grow and become more rigid in my mouth. I had all on him,
he had no more to give me and I was loving every minute of it. All too
soon I could feel some pulses and I pulled my head back so I could collect
and enjoy his essence. I was just starting to enjoy my reward when I no
longer had any control of myself.
In a very short while he just collapsed on me. When he did, he
fell forward pulling that cock from my mouth. I could feel the air cool my
own cock and knew he could no longer reach it from his position on top of
me. No matter, we were both satisfied. Each had gathered from the other
that which we needed. I just lay there, enjoying the afterglow.
In a short while he turned around and we shared a kiss. He then
assumed his usual position and relaxed. His breathing slowed and steadied.
I pulled the sheet over us and joined him in sleep.
To be continued...